Nathan stayed last night. It’s his regular stop over for the week which he seems to enjoy.
He’s 12, a sharp kid and becoming more interesting as he gets older. He sees things happening in the world in clearer context than 90 percent of those much older than him.
Today, just before he went to school, he mentioned Elvis Presley and the last televised concert Elvis ever did, six weeks before he died where he sang a poignant and rousing version of “My Way”, which seems to encompass his triumphs and defeats and highs and lows of his life. Elvis is a pretty shattered version of himself 6 weeks before he died but it’s worth watching a legend give every last bit of what he has left in what is, unbeknownst to him at the time, a fitting farewell to the world.
Nathan knew the song and that Frank Sinatra had recorded the original version and was even aware of Sinatra’s phenomenal cultural influence on the world. The only thing I could add was that Paul Anka wrote it which he didn’t know.
I can’t ever remember playing that clip whilst Nathan was here, but I more than likely have because I doubt he would have seen it anywhere else. He knew about the drug addiction that killed the King of Rock and Roll and we discussed the pressures that must have been on Elvis through his life, and how the fame must have crushed him. We also talked about Michael Jackson whose life and legacy are comparable to Elvis’ and again I was left a bit flabbergasted at his breadth of knowledge.
It seems I have managed to influence Linda’s grandson where I failed with her daughters!!
He also often talks about Ned Kelly. I have a few posters and bits about the infamous outlaw and when Nathan sees them, he gives his very liberal opinion on the Kelly Outbreak which would probably offend the harder hearts of society. But I am sure his views will evolve has he gets older.
I have a framed poster of the Jerilderie Letter with Ned’s face superimposed on it. The Jerilderie Letter is now hailed as a significant piece of Australian history, Ned Kelly’s justification of his actions, directed at the Victorian colonial government and a stark warning of what may come if the police continue to harass him and his kind.
“I am a widow’s son outlawed and my orders must be obeyed!”
I told Nathan that it is his if and when he wants it and he seemed pleased to take it although his mum will no doubt be glad that it will be kept here for safe keeping.
I told him of my own very thin connection to this famous piece of Australian history.
My grandmother, as a very young woman had worked for the family of a man named Edwin Living in Wangaratta. I am not sure exactly what she did, but it sounds as if it may have been as a housekeeper or something similar. Perhaps one of my relatives may know more.
Mr Living by this stage was an old man but he had been the local bank manager, a position of great respect in regional towns in the day and was much esteemed.
As a much younger man, Edwin Living had played a none too minor role in a drama that played out in the small NSW town of Jerilderie from the 8th to the 10th of February 1879.
In the early high summer of 1879, the Kelly Gang had been on the run since the police shootings at Stringybark Creek in October 1878 and had captured the town of Euroa and robbed its bank in December. The NSW police had boasted that the Kelly Gang should cross the border at their peril as the NSW police would be waiting for them. Ned Kelly took the bait.
Ned and the gang crossed the Murray River and invested the town on February 8, 1879, capturing the sleeping police officers in their barracks. They paraded around town in captured police uniforms causing much mistaken satisfaction among the locals who felt these impressive young officers were just the kind of men who would be needed to capture the Kelly Gang!
Edwin Living was a bank teller in Jerilderie at the time. Years later my grandmother would tell me that Edwin Living had a pronounced stutter but the joke around Wangaratta was the stutter had never developed until Ned Kelly walked through the door of the National Bank at Jerilderie on Monday, February 10, 1879!
Ned rounded up Mr Living and the rest of the town and corralled them in the local hotel. He had a manuscript that he wanted printed and sought out the local newspaper editor, Samuel Gill, in order for him to print it out. Mr Gill had been very critical of Ned Kelly and the gang in his editorials and news that Ned Kelly wanted to see him had obviously reached him before Ned did. He was nowhere to be found.
Young Edwin Living stepped up and took responsibility for Ned’s manuscript, promising to get it printed and distributed for which Ned was apparently very grateful. Of course, as soon as he could, he left for Melbourne and handed the manuscript to his employers who passed it on to the police who buried the incendiary document for decades. Eventually the “Jerilderie Letter” would be published in full and whether you are a fan or foe of Ned Kelly it is a significant piece of Australian culture and worth a read for a handle on Australian bush vernacular of the time and as the manifesto of the Last Australian Outlaw.
So, that is my very tenuous link to the Jerilderie Letter and why I have it framed, even though it’s not on a wall.
I hope Nathan reads it one day and applies the same reason and context that he seems to apply to most things that pique his interest. The world would be a better place if most followed his lead.
Until next time.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 